Do aggressive quota structures actually improve forecast accuracy?

A commonly held assumption is that setting quotas above realistic expectations creates useful pressure. The trade-off less often discussed is that stretch quotas also distort the sales team's own forecast inputs, since reps forecasting against an unrealistic number have less incentive to report accurately.

Organizations separating the quota (the target sales is measured against) from the forecast (the actual expected number used for business planning) tend to get more reliable forecasting inputs than those that conflate the two.